When is a book not a book? When it is performed by a starry cast of hundreds. Except it has always been more complicated than thatNews this week of a 17% hike in the UK’s audiobook sales might seem like a niche business story, but it raises an existential question. What exactly is an audiobook today? Is it a book? Is it a play? Or is it becoming something else entirely? What is clear is that a jostle for market dominance is driving it into new dimensions. The streaming platform Spotify followed its move into podcasting two years ago with the launch of an audiobooks business. Though it has yet to start making its own recordings, last autumn it made a deal for 200,000 audiobooks to be available to its premium users.Not to be outdone, Amazon-owned Audible – accustomed to being the market leader – upped its game, hiring the Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes to record multi-voice versions of the Dickens novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, and announcing last month that it had reached an agreement for a recording of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, voiced by more than 100 actors and featuring a “groundbreaking new soundscape”. The new Potter audiobooks, it said, would not usurp but “sit alongside and complement” conventional recordings by Stephen Fry and Jim Dale, which Audible also hosts. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-10 17:25:03 UTC ]
When it came time for debut author Brent Underwood to record the audiobook for his book 'Ghost Town Living,' about the California mining town he calls home, he decided to build a makeshift studio in the long-abandoned silver mine at the heart of his story. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Amid growing opportunities for audio development, Bookwire’s look at the French market included challenges, as well. (Sponsored) By Eric Dupuy | @duperico ‘A Dynamism for Audio’ hen the Frankfurt-based Bookwire presented its second digital program on the audiobook market in France on Thursday... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-03-11 09:35:37 UTC ]
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Brandon Sanderson gets Audible to make changes to audiobook royalties, and nine other of the top book-related stories of the day. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-03-06 23:48:49 UTC ]
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At the 29th annual Audies, presented by the Audio Publishers Association and held in Los Angeles on March 4, winners across 27 categories were announced. The night's biggest honor, Audiobook of the Year, went to 'Surrender,' written and narrated by Bono. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Spotify's... interesting pricing plans, it "It" books of March, and more of the day's bookish news: Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-03-01 21:43:16 UTC ]
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Spotify has added another subscription option. This time around, it's offering a plan that has little to do with music. The Audiobooks Access Tier (which is US-only for now) offers 15 hours of audiobook listening each month for $10. You'll have access to Spotify's library of more than 200,000... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-03-01 18:08:29 UTC ]
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In the audiobook oral history “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!,’” a cast of dozens fondly revisits a now-classic film. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-01 14:12:30 UTC ]
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Spotify has added a new option that gives users 15 hours to listen to audiobooks for $9.99—a dollar less than a Premium subscription, which offers the same 15 hours per month, plus ad-free music, for $10.99. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-01 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Next year, SenLinYu’s Harry Potter fic Manacled will disappear from Archive of Our Own. They don’t want to take it down, but it’s the only way to keep others from profiting off of the work. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-02-28 20:42:17 UTC ]
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Updated terms of service for Spotifiy's indie author audiobook distribution platform Findaway Voices appeared to give Spotify broad powers to reuse content. An outcry forced a revision of terms, but clarification is still needed, say authors and affiliates. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-28 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In Streisand’s new audiobook recording for her chatty, brick-size memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” the superlative diva adds a little freestyling. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-23 12:45:40 UTC ]
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Changes in Spotify's terms of use for its Findaway Voices audiobook product trigger concerns from the Society of Authors in London. The post UK’s Society of Authors: More Clarity in Spotify’s Terms appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-02-22 15:16:42 UTC ]
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I always imagined, that, given the choice, I would read my own audiobook. I had heard memoirs often sounded best in the author’s throat—something about the familiar tang of the hardship unspooled. But had I written a memoir? A bookseller acquaintance asked me that a year before the publication... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-22 09:54:39 UTC ]
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Fans who were girls in the era of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Twilight are now the women who have powered the success of Barbie and the Eras Tour. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-02-18 19:51:27 UTC ]
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From fan fiction about Disney cartoons having sex to raunchy shows from Hollywood stars, pornographic audio is podcasting’s hottest new trendHave you ever stood at the school gates, waiting to pick up your six-year-old, while secretly listening to fan fiction about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-12 16:32:24 UTC ]
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Job cuts add to costs for streaming service but it gains 10m premium subscribers in fourth quarterSpotify’s push beyond music has tipped the streaming service into the red again, after it acquired the rights to 200,000 audiobooks for premium subscribers, with Prince Harry’s autobiography and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-06 15:45:35 UTC ]
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The streaming company says its payout model is competitive, but the Society of Authors has raised doubts about whether authors ultimately benefit Spotify has said that it has paid audiobook publishers “tens of millions” since allowing users 15 hours of audiobook listening in its Premium... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-01 16:08:34 UTC ]
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There are early signs that Spotify’s addition of audiobooks to its streaming service is helping drive audiobook consumption — already a growing market. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-01-29 17:00:09 UTC ]
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HarperVia will publish 'The Last Dream,' the debut collection of short stories by Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne, on September 24, in print and audiobook formats. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Audiobook publisher RBmedia has acquired Berrett-Koehler’s audiobook publishing business, including its backlist, and will publish audiobook editions of new Berrett-Koehler titles under its business audiobook brand, Ascent Audio, beginning this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
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